1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tape printing apparatus and method for carrying out a printing operation in view of heat shrinkage of a heat shrink tape.
2. Prior Art
Recently, a tape printing apparatus has been proposed e.g. by Japanese Utility Model Registration Publication No. 2583622. The tape printing apparatus carries out printing on a heat shrink tape which is thermally contracted or transformed into a predetermined memorized shape when heat is applied thereto. The tape printing apparatus uses a heat shrink tape which has a hollow cylindrical shape i.e. an annular cross-sectional shape and is hard to be peeled off a cylindrical object when the tape is fitted thereon, i.e. affixed thereto. The heat shrink tape is mounted in a tape cartridge in a flattened state and wound into a roll. Desired characters are printed on the heat shrink tape unwound from the tape cartridge. This printing operation is carried out by using a normal font stored in the apparatus, similarly to the case of an ordinary tape being printed.
However, after the heat shrink tape is printed based on the normal font, when the tape is affixed to an object article for application of heat, normally, the tape is radially shrunk or contracted, and hence letters and images (characters) printed on the tape are transformed into shapes having a vertically or horizontally reduced proportion according to a shrinkage rate of the tape, which makes it hard to read the characters. Particularly when the tape is used to indicate electrical wiring, small-sized characters printed thereon become harder to be read.